>, surely the interest from Yale's massive endowment could cover tuition for a much greater number of students? A lot of endowments (most?) are earmarked for a

>, surely the interest from Yale's massive endowment could cover tuition for a much greater number of students? A lot of endowments (most?) are earmarked for a specific purpose because that was the condition for receiving the charity money from the donator. And funding general tuition often doesn't meet the conditions. (Several articles explain this: https://www.google.com/search?q=ivy+league+endowments+earmarked https://www.google.com/search?q=ivy+league+endowments+earmar...) And the alternative of donating "unrestricted" sometimes doesn't have the desired outcome the public wants to see. (E.g. spending on football scoreboard instead of financial aid for students. Previous comment about that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26377357 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26377357 )